IPC and Atos Origin Sign Partnership Agreement

Today, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed an agreement with Atos Origin to become its Worldwide IT Partner.

The signing ceremony took place at the Sports Training Centre for Disabled Chinese Athletes in Beijing, China. IPC President Sir Philip Craven, Wang Xinxian, President of NPC of China and Vice Chairperson of the China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF), Lu Shiming, Executive Vice President of CDPF, Patrick Adiba, Executive Vice President, Olympics and Major Events of Atos Origin and Herbert Leung, Chief Executive Officer of Atos Origin Asia, attended the event.

Under the agreement between Atos Origin and the IPC, Atos Origin will contribute to the development of the Paralympic Movement through the creation of a system, which is designed to manage the athletes' data, including results, biographical and classification specific information. Following the previous agreement Atos Origin signed directly with the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (BOCOG), the agreement with the IPC enables Atos Origin to expand its Paralympic marketing rights worldwide.

"We heartily welcome Atos Origin to become the Worldwide Partner of the IPC. The Paralympic Games provide a stage for all athletes with a disability to demonstrate their strong spirit of meeting challenges as well as inspire and excite the world with their performances. We hope the Paralympic Games can further promote such a spirit and attract more companies like Atos Origin and individuals to support the Paralympic Movement," said Sir Philip. He also added: "The solution to be provided by Atos Origin shall help the IPC grow and offer better services to its members, National Paralympic Committees, athletes and competition organizers."

"We are honoured and proud to become the Worldwide IT Partner of the IPC. It marks a milestone in Atos Origin's history of supporting both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, at a global level. It demonstrates that Atos Origin attaches the same level of importance to both the Olympic and the Paralympic Movements," said Mr. Adiba. "Atos Origin has been a strong believer in these international movements empowering people and helping them achieve goals they might not have otherwise believed they could attain."

During today's signing ceremony, Atos Origin also signed an agreement with the National Paralympic Committee of China to sponsor Li Duan and Bian Jianxin, two Chinese Paralympic athletes, in defending their titles at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

Atos Origin has primary responsibility for Information Technology, relating to IT consulting, systems integration, operations management, information security and software applications development for the Olympic Games. The Company has been the IT Partner of the 2002, 2004 and 2006 Paralympic Games and is currently working on the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. It has started the preparation for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and will soon start the first steps for 2012 in London.